Well-planned procurement processes are critical for transportation agencies, because there are many possible bases for protest made by unsuccessful proposers. When these issues occur, a proposer who has expended considerable resources on the procurement and was not selected may decide to protest the selection decision. There is also a risk that the protest will necessitate canceling the procurement and reprocuring the project, resulting in additional costs and delays to project implementation. Therefore, transportation agencies need to identify potential situations that may give rise to protests in procurement for alternative contracting method (ACM) projects so that they can take appropriate measures to reduce the risk and ensure that the procurement process proceeds as planned. ACMs include project delivery methods, procurement strategies, and payment types.

The objectives of this project are to (1) identify, assess, and analyze root causes of bid protests in various ACMs and (2) provide strategies to avoid and mitigate them. The analysis will (1) result in prioritizing risks pertinent to various ACMs that may lead to protests and (2) identify proposed strategies to implement in drafting bid documents and practices to avoid bid protests.